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Puget Sound-off: the Word on the Street from Seattle’s Bike Commuters

By Angela Sucich

So says bicycle commuter Steve Couch, who has been traveling by bike on and off for about 15-20 years, primarily on Seattle’s east side. Couch’s current commute takes him 15 miles round trip, and though he’s stayed pretty safe, he is wary of buses after several instances of being “almost taken out.”

Photo by Bicycle Paper

Cyclists are usually outnumbered.

“I think they saw me, I don’t know,” says Couch of the passing buses that nearly cut him off. “It’s not like I asked them afterwards.”

Couch tries to minimize risk during his commute by taking basic safety measures. “I have a lot of lights on my bike. I am very conservative. I stay away from traffic as much as possible. I will take a longer commuting route if it’s got less traffic on it.”

In April, Seattle’s Cascade Bicycle Club will release their “2009 Report Card on Bicycling,” a report on cyclists’ perception of the city’s performance with regard to bike-related issues, including safety improvements and use of resources. Compiled from a survey of Seattle cyclists like Couch, the report will provide a sounding board for the collective voice of the bicycle community.

David Hiller, advocacy director for Cascade, describes the report card as the “first effort to get cyclists to talk about their [views]. It’s a baseline; we’re looking at how people perceive their cycling environment.”

Although not every cyclist has had a bad encounter with a Metro bus, most have had some sort of close call with a vehicle or a scary moment on the road, and as useful as it is to assess what people think collectively, it is also meaningful to hear them speak as individuals. In the spirit of adding a personal element to the important surveys that Cascade and others have conducted — to keep in mind the actual people represented by the compiled statistics — here are a few stories of risk and responsibility on the road, as told by Seattle’s bike commuters.

Another cautionary tale comes from long-time cyclist and advocate for safety, Jeff Almgren. A regular commuter since about 1980, he has also led kids’ rides for many years, making him particularly attentive to cycling safety issues. But unlike Couch, the major problem he finds on the road isn’t Metro buses. Rather, it’s other cyclists.

He recalls an experience he had in the mid-‘90s, when another person riding his bike to work crashed into him by the University Hospital near the Montlake Bridge.

“It was quarter of six in the morning, it was in June, and it was clear, beautiful blue sky, and he was just hammering, head down. I was just commuting to work, and I was in the little curve right there, and he broadsided me — pitching me out in the street.”

The resulting injuries required that Almgren undergo four root canals and four crowns, plus surgery for a mangled hand. And what did the rider who caused the accident have to say about it?

“He told me it was just a risk of riding on the road,” says Almgren.

Photo by Bicycle Paper

Share the road, there is room for everyone.

Since the rider wouldn’t take responsibility for the crash, Almgren was forced to sue him, and he was able to recover just enough money to pay for his wrecked bike.

This experience highlights one reason why bike commuters tend to be especially critical of cyclists who violate the rules of the road. They hold cyclists to a higher standard, since cyclists are the ones who should best understand the risks — and the responsibilities — that come with sharing the road.

“There are many cyclists that are fast … that are out training and really don’t seem to … care about other folks, either pedestrians, runners or, you know, slower, recreational cyclists,” says Almgren. “Other cyclists seem to be the worst enemies. That’s my take.”

Another reason for the criticism directed at negligent bike commuters may be the bad rap they give to the rest of the community. Shannon Dorsey, a member of the Seattle bicycle club .83 (Point 83), could do without this negative publicity. She is particularly annoyed when people blow through lights without stopping.

“If you want cars to respect you, then you can’t blow lights. We ride with people who do that all the time…. If I want them [car drivers] to respect me as a car, then you can’t have it both ways, and a lot of time bikers want it both ways.”

Dorsey commutes from Phinney Ridge to Eastlake, a route she loves because she gets a view of both the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges before she drops down onto the Burke Gilman Trail to cross the University Bridge. “And if the bridge is up, it’s a nice little stop,” she added.

It could be Dorsey’s ability to turn an inconvenience into a positive that explains her difficulty in trying to recall a truly bad bike commuting experience, though she admits she has “certainly tapped the backs of cars [in warning].”

Having grown up in the South, she brings a little southern congeniality with her when she ventures out on the road. “If a car is nice and stops for me, I believe in [saying] thank you, even if we have the right of way. It’s nice, and the next time [drivers] are more likely to stop for you ... Any time someone gives me the right of way, I’m like, ‘Thank you!’”

By offering a good model of cycling behavior, Dorsey is, in her own way, teaching drivers to be more bike-friendly, which can only improve an already pro-bike town that is seeing the number of bicyclists increase dramatically.

John Mauro, director of Bike Commutes for Cascade, credits Seattle’s solid cycling infrastructure as a factor in contributing to this growth.

“The infrastructure is there, and the numbers are starting to be there, we’re seeing up to 20,000 people participating in bike-to-work day, you’re seeing six to eight thousand people biking to work on a Seattle summer day, which percentage-wise isn’t massive yet, but it’s certainly sizable compared to other cities,” says Mauro.

Hiller estimates the infrastructure as having nearly doubled in the last two years. It now includes close to 100 miles of networks serving almost twice as many recreational and commuting cyclists as compared to four years ago. And how does he explain the increase?

“Land use is changing. Origins and destinations are getting closer together … 85% percent of [bike commute] trips occur within a 45-minute radius, 60% of trips occur still within a 30-minute radius. So if you are traveling at a leisurely 10 mph to things a mile and a half away, that’s only a 10 minute ride.”

With more people now traveling by bike, there is an increased need for more cycling-friendly streets. According to both Hiller and Mauro, the city is determined to build on its cycling infrastructure, and the voter-approved, $92 million-dollar Seattle Bicycle Master Plan is part of that future. In the meantime, bicycle commuters can take advantage of the resources that local bike organizations provide to help educate and protect cyclists. Many groups throughout the region offer classes, workshops and programs to develop more confident riders.

Michael Snyder of Ballard took a class as a faster way to pick up skills after years of learning the rules of the road on his own. “I learned over the first few years the hard knocks, the near misses, and realized, ‘okay, I was in a dumb position here.’ I was on the sidewalk initially and then, okay, I need to be on the road. And okay, I’m on the road, but I’m hugging the curb and somebody tried to pass me six inches away – maybe I need to take the lane more.”

There are also several web resources serving bike commuters. Cyclists can consult Bicycle Alliance of Washington’s “Transportation & Commuting / Commute Route Alerts” webpage, with locations and descriptions of construction projects that riders may want to avoid. The website, www.bicyclewatchdog.org, lets users post bicycle hazard reports as well as hazard “success stories” — follow-up postings about transportation problem areas, including status updates and recommended solutions. Portland-area cyclists can use bikeportland.org’s B-SMaRT ~ Bike Safety Monitoring and Reporting Tool, which utilizes Google Maps in order to provide “a more complete picture of bicycle crash data and danger spots,” as described on the website.

Armed with these resources, and with the cautionary tales of cyclists in mind, bike commuters can hopefully reduce the risks of traveling Seattle’s streets by their preferred method. In the words of Steve Couch, “Stay safe. Enjoy it.”